


Come gather 'round people

by Eligh



Series: Legends [5]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Reunions, spoilers for 1x10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-06-01 05:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6503539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eligh/pseuds/Eligh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>'oh Leonard, admit your feels'<br/>'i don't have feels'<br/>'shut up you love him'<br/>'fine okay omg' </p><p>THIS SHIP. THIS FUCKING SHIP.<br/>They even called it out in the episode recaps on <a href="http://comicsalliance.com/legends-of-tomorrow-season-1-episode-10-progeny/">Comics Alliance</a>.</p></blockquote>





	Come gather 'round people

Len watched, his face set, as Mick swept off the bridge after dropping the ‘mercenaries are on our asses’ bombshell. Say what you will of the Vanishing Point, but it at least heightened Mick’s drop the mic inclinations. It was almost amusing—or would be, if the situation were less dire.

While the rest of the team looked a mixture of gobsmacked and worried after Mick’s revelation, Rip—arrogant fuckwit that he was—just looked angry. Possibly the ire was directed towards Len, or Mick, or a combination of the two. Angry that Mick was tentatively back on the team. Angry that Len hadn’t killed him to begin with.

Len didn’t particularly care. He stood, gingerly cracking his neck—Mick hadn’t been pulling his punches, not in the slightest—and followed his… well. He wasn’t sure he could call Mick anything of ‘his’ anymore. A brief glance in both directions down the hallway leading away from the bridge revealed no glowering black-clad bounty hunter, so Len only hesitated for a moment before turning left, toward his own room and away from Gideon’s medical bay.

He’d wear Mick’s bruises, nurse the concussion. He deserved them, after all.

But apparently luck wasn’t with him tonight, because after a painful minute spent limping to his door, it swished open to reveal none other than the source of same said bruises sitting proprietarily on Len’s bed, his chin resting in one hand, his brow furrowed.

“You didn’t change the lock key,” Mick said.

“That’s because it’s been less than a week for me since I left you,” Len snapped, and then immediately regretted it. He was tired of this fight already. He didn’t want to yell at Mick, he didn’t want to punch him. He missed his friend.

Mick didn’t react to Len’s outburst other than to drop his hands behind him and lean back a little on the bed. He searched Len’s face. “Why aren’t you in the medbay?” he finally asked.

Len lifted an eyebrow. He hadn’t moved from his spot by the entrance besides taking a step in to allow the door to close behind him, treading carefully so as to hide the signs of concussion. “Well I wanted to go to bed,” he said slowly. “Lick my wounds.” He gestured widely with his left hand. “But you’re sitting on it, so…”

Mick leaned back further, making himself comfortable, the absolute shit. “I have some things in need of clarification, first.” His face softened slightly, though, and he shifted to the side. “But if you’re not going to let the ship fix you, come sit down. You look like you’re about to fall over.”

“And whose fault is that,” Len grumbled, but did as Mick asked anyway. Mick’s eyes narrowed as he limped across the room, tracking Len’s somewhat jerky movements, and by the time Len had gingerly settled next to him on the bed and swung his legs up in an effort to unlace his boots, Mick’s head was tilted, question on his lips.

“Why th’ hell are you limping? I didn’t do that.”

Len shot him a tired look. “You weren’t the only person I fought today. Robots pack a hell of a punch, you know.” He sighed and leaned forward, trying to pick at his laces, but after a moment gave it up as a bad job. His ribs hurt.

Mick snorted softly and turned sideways, grabbing hold of Len’s boot to deftly start unknotting the lacing. His touch was gentle, unhurried, and Len looked down at his lap as Mick worked, swallowing past a sudden lump in his throat. They sat in silence while Mick tugged off Len’s shoes and then exchanged quiet words—sit up, lean forward, lay back—as Mick removed first Len’s jacket and shirt, and then his pants, exchanging them for soft sleeping clothes.

“Okay,” Mick said at last, after he’d guided Len to lie down on the bed, after he’d pulled off his own boots and settled, still sitting, but closer. “Be honest.” He smirked. “I know it’s hard.”

“You talk differently,” Len said softly, not rising to the bait. “Why—”

“I was gone for a long time,” Mick told him, quickly interrupting. “An’ I don’t want to talk about that right now.”

Len looked up at him. “…Later? Will you want to, I mean.”

Mick paused for a long moment before answering. “Sure,” he said finally. “Yeah, Lenny. I’ll tell you about it when I’m ready.” He smiled slightly. “But for now: first. You told Hunter that we were married.”

Len rocked his head back on his pillow. Fuck. Who’d told Mick that? Probably Sarah. “Yeah,” he admitted. “But I was angry, and you were gone—though I’d thought for only a few days, so I could cool the rest of the team off—and we’re—we _were_ , I mean—living together and fucking, Mick, and I lo—” he shook his head and looked away. No need for _that_ much honesty. “It was close enough.” He swallowed. “Close enough for me, anyway.”

Mick stared down at him. “You never meant to leave me there,” he said, more of a question than it sounded. Len reached out, touched his knee briefly, and then retreated. He didn’t know how welcome his touch would be.

“Never. I was going to go back, but then you’re here already, so I never… did…” He screwed up his face. “Time travel’s confusing, Mick. If we went back right now, and picked you up…”

“You’d create a paradox,” Mick finished his sentence with a small smile. “So we shouldn’t, despite how terrible that time was for me. But it’s not confusing if you think about it right.” He looked pleased. “And hey, I finally know more than you about something.” He leaned in slightly, now smiling more broadly. “I know how to pilot a spaceship, too. And navigate the time stream. I even know what the fuck the time stream is, in fact.”

“Useful information all,” Len drawled. “And you caught us several times. You’re demonstrably better at it than Rip.”

“That’s not sayin’ much,” Mick rumbled, his voice low, and was Len imagining things or was he leaning in even closer? “He’s a terrible Time Master.”

“You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know,” Len said, and then watched as Mick’s eyes flicked down to his mouth. The moment stretched for a heartbeat, two, three, but then Mick inhaled sharply, blinked hard, and leaned back.

“How did you get out of the cuffs I put you in on my ship?” he asked. “They were a special polymer. I know you didn’t break them.”

“You…” Len said, unsure. Did Mick not know? “You left my gun within my reach. I froze my hand and, ah, shattered it off.” Mick’s head whipped around and he stared at Len, seemingly aghast. “I’m fine,” Len said, lifting his hand to demonstrate. “Apparently Gideon regrows limbs, I’m fine, Mick, don’t look so—”

“Why th’ hell would you do something so insane?” Mick said, sounding strangled. He reached forward and grabbed Len’s hand, tugging it close and inspecting it, turning it over, his fingers pressing into Len’s palm. “Lenny, you coulda crippled yourself.”

“They would have killed you,” Len said, confused. “I couldn’t let them do that.” He curled his fingers—still slightly stiff and foreign-feeling even after a few days of breaking them in—around Mick’s. “I couldn’t.”

Mick let him hold on, and fell silent. He stared down at their joined hands, and after a moment shook his head. “You woulda let me kill you in that cell, wouldn’t ’ve you?”

Len swallowed hard. “Yeah.” Mick looked up; their eyes met. “Look,” Len said, haltingly. He was feeling fuzzy; it had to be the concussion, and maybe the heady relief of having Mick back. “I know… I know you’re mad. And I probably deserve it. And I know it’s been too long for you probably even to remember the details, but to me it’s barely been a week since you—”

“You wanted to break up,” Mick interrupted. “You said we were twisting each other up, that it wasn’t good business, that somethin’ was gonna snap.” He said it with an air of someone who knew a quote by heart, had repeated it to himself for years. He tightened his grip on Len’s hand, and Len felt sick. He shouldn’t have said those things. “Something did,” Mick finished quietly.

“I missed you,” Len said into the silence after that statement, so soft that his words were almost lost in the ever-present rumble of the ship’s engines. “So badly, Mick.”

Mick didn’t move for a long time, and didn’t say anything, either. The quiet went on long enough that Len’s eyes started to droop; he _was_ tired, had been in a firefight and a fistfight today, and Mick—even an angry, hurt Mick—was familiar enough that his presence could lull Len into a sense of safety. Of rest.

“I’m sorry I threatened Lisa,” Mick said, and he was suddenly close to Len’s side, stretched out on the bed with Len tucked between his chest and the wall. Len blinked half-awake; he must have been drifting.

“I know you wouldn’t hurt her,” he murmured, closing his eyes again, barely fighting the pull of sleep. “I trust you.” He yawned and ducked his head closer into Mick’s neck. There was a reason he shouldn’t be doing this, but he couldn’t for the life of him wake up enough to remember why. “I love you.”

“Lenny,” Mick said, his voice thick. “Jesus, Lenny.”

Len snuffled into the warm skin of Mick’s neck and pressed closer. The _heat_ of him; Len had missed it so badly. His breathing shallowed and he drifted, the phantom press of Mick’s lips on his forehead easing him into sleep.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> 'oh Leonard, admit your feels'  
> 'i don't have feels'  
> 'shut up you love him'  
> 'fine okay omg' 
> 
> THIS SHIP. THIS FUCKING SHIP.  
> They even called it out in the episode recaps on [Comics Alliance](http://comicsalliance.com/legends-of-tomorrow-season-1-episode-10-progeny/).


End file.
